英语专业论文范文-Other Symbols Used in the Novel(2)
2013-06-28 01:00
导读：However, the winter is not totally a gloom one, and his hope is still survival in the fierce winter, A decision has been made. Im shaking off the old skin and Ill leave it here in the hole, Im coming
However, the winter is not totally a gloom one, and his hope is still survival in the fierce winter, “A decision has been made. I’m shaking off the old skin and I’ll leave it here in the hole, I’m coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless…”(Ellison 2002: 581). The cycle, spring –summer-autumn-winter-spring, signifies the man’s fate in the world.
3.2 Symbolism in Rituals
Rituals, the social customs, are the source of all kinds of themes, symbols and images. The narrator accepts the invitation of white men to deliver a speech held in a smoking-room. All the big shots attend there smoking, drinking and shouting. The royal battle, the performance of a naked girl, and the struggle of coin-picking are all the entertainments of those white people. All these symbolize the rituals projecting a false image to the young Negro the American Dream: sex, violence, money. The Negro blindly accepts the behavior of white men, which brings to Blacks enormous shame. The ritual intensifies the taboo of contact between the white and black.
Similarly, after the boxing, the narrator tries hard to deliver the speech, however, what wait for him is not the applause but the noise and shouting. No one pays attention to him, but when he slip-tongues the word “responsibility” for “equality”, which evokes their discontent and hatred, and it is not halted until the narrator admits it is a mistake. The satire of the ritual is very strong—how could a Negro call for social equality in a white-dominated world? It also tells us the wishes of Negroes for the recognition of white by their submissiveness and obedience are just illusions. The rituals in the novel symbolize that the White people try to use all kinds of material temptation to blind the Black people(黄媛 2006). Their purpose is to strengthen the race hierarchy and preserve their myth that the White is the superior race.
3.3 Symbolism in Contradictory Images
There are three pairs of contradictory images in the novel, the Invisibility and Visibility, the Black and White, and the Dark and Light.
a) Invisibility and Visibility
Just as the title of the novel tells us, the invisibility is the exact situation of a black man in the America. The narrator lives in the underground hole is a symbol of his marginality and invisibility. While in the novel, he wires 1369 lights, “Maybe it is exactly because I am invisible, light confirms my reality and gives birth to my form” (Ellison 2002: 6). The author emphasizes the protagonist’s invisibility many times, for example, the eyes images are employed to present these contradictory images, the blind eyes, the fake eyes, the veiled eyes are the typical examples.
b) Black and White
According to white-is-right philosophy, white generally symbolizes goodness and purity, while black symbolizes evil and corruption. In the novel, black is generally portrayed as good and positive such as black skin, Ras’ magnificent black horse, the “black power house”and so on. white is associated with the negative images of coldness, death, and artifice such as snow, such as Mr. Norton’s white shoes, the white blind folds, the optic white paint produced at the liberty paint factory. A series of sharp contrasts between black and white indicate a close relationship between the marginal Black culture and mainstream White culture. The fact is that the white culture had assimilated the black one, which is reflected in the epilogue of the novel one “… of the greatest jokes in the world is the spectacle of the white busy escaping blackness and becoming blacker every day, and the blacks striving toward whiteness, becoming quite dull and gray. None of us seems to know who he is or where he’s going” (Ellison 2002: 577). In American society dominated by the white culture, no matter how hard a black or white man is searching for himself, he will eventually get lost and lose himself.
您可以访问中国科教评价网（www.NsEac.com）查看更多相关的文章。 c) Darkness and Light
Darkness is the symbol of confusion, ignorance, the evil side of society. While Light is the symbol of truth, civilization and the good side of society. In prologue, the protagonist believes that there is no brighter spot in all New York than his hole, including the Broadway and the Empire State Building. On the contrary, in his mind, “those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization, our whole culture.” The protagonist’s hole is warm and full of lights because he wires 1369 lights. He says, “Before that I lived in the darkness into which I was chased, but now I see, I’ve illuminated the blackness of my invisibility—and vice versa” (Ellison 2002: 13).
During the riot, the protagonist tries desperately to return to Mary’s house, but while running away from two men, he falls into a manhole and lands in a coal cellar as black as pitch. The dark underground environment symbolizes the protagonist’s life—full of agony. Finally, the protagonist refuses darkness and searches for light. Light means warmth, energy to people, especially for the protagonist, and with the warmth of light, the protagonist shows great energy when he moves toward enervation and paralysis. He decides to come out from the hibernation and face the world again.
